Being underweight in childhood, high blood pressure, unsafe sex, alcohol use and lack of clean water and sanitation have been cited as being responsible for a quarter of the 60 million deaths estimated to occur annually. According to a new World Health Organisation report, addressing these factors could increase life expectancy by nearly five years.

Malnutrition is the leading risk factor for children and is responsible for over 2 million deaths per year globally, the report notes, adding that environmental risks like unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene and indoor smoke from solid fuels cause around 2 million children deaths per year. “Unhealthy and unsafe environments cause one in four child deaths worldwide,” says the report. Using extensive data from WHO and various other scientific studies, the report estimates the effects of 24 risks to health by region, age, sex and country income for 2004.

As per the report, high blood pressure is the leading risk factor for mortality, responsible for 13 per cent of deaths globally. Eight risk factors alone account for over 75 per cent of cases of coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. These are alcohol consumption, high blood glucose, tobacco use, high blood pressure, high body mass index, high cholesterol, low fruit and vegetable intake and physical inactivity. “Most of these deaths occur in developing countries,” it notes.

“Understanding the relative importance of health risk factors helps governments to figure out which health policies they want to pursue,” said Colin Mathers, Coordinator for Mortality and Burden of Disease at WHO. “In many countries there is a complex mix of risk factors. Countries can combine this type of evidence along with information about policies and their costs to decide how to set their health agenda,” he added.

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